About

Evan Ari Kelman is a New York City filmmaker with a passion for creating emotionally powerful experiences for audiences. His New York University thesis narrative, BANDITO, held its World Premiere at Tribeca Film Festival in 2015 and was awarded with the 2015 Wasserman Award for Best Directing from NYU.

Kelman returned to Tribeca in 2016 with ONE GOOD PITCH, which he co-wrote and produced. In the summer of 2016, Kelman produced the narrative short, HOMING IN, which screened at the British Film Institute. Kelman's first feature film script, WITH THESE EYES, was awarded a 2016 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Writing Award. His latest short film WHERE THERE'S SMOKE held its World Premiere at Tribeca Film Festival 2017, marking a third consecutive return as a writer/producer, and second as a director. WHERE THERE'S SMOKE won the Grand Jury Award for Best Short Film (Live Action) at the Edmonton International Film Festival, and now qualifies for the 2019 Academy Awards.

As a freelancer, Kelman has directed content for a multitude of brands including Foot Locker, Converse, Uber, Chevrolet, Gillette, and Coppertone. His award winning commercial, "The Push" for Foot Locker, aired nationally on ABC and ESPN2.

PRESS

Hero, Complex: The Doubt and Drive at the Core of ‘Where There’s Smoke’: We talked to Kelman about high-risk filmmaking, the fickle nature of personal strength, and the undeniable sense of duty that drove him to create Where There’s Smoke.

The 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T, today announced its lineup of 57 thought-provoking and diverse short films in competition, including 36 world premieres. The selected shorts, 40% of which were directed by women, and include filmmakers from every corner of the globe, were curated from a record 4,385 submissions.

Bandito is a brief, violent coming-of-age flick, directed and filmed by a couple of NYU grads as a thesis project, and funded by Kickstarter. A five-day shoot, a shoe-string budget and, yet, the story told is twice as compelling as most of the so-called blockbusters that audiences endure. The likes of Michael Bay long ago proved that a big pyrotechnics budget is a poor substitute for a compelling story; this short film underlines that conclusion twice for emphasis.

New Machine’s editor’s reviewed the filmmakers selected to screen as part of the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival shorts categories including Narrative and Documentary. Below we have signaled out 17 filmmakers, nine of them documentarians, which seems to reinforce the notion that the genre is stronger than ever.

These awards, in screenwriting, film development, and film production, recognize exceptionally talented work that explores science and technology themes and characters in an accurate and dramatically compelling fashion.

“What happens once a wannabe Spielberg has completed his or her first short? The ideal next step is to submit the film into festivals, like Tribeca, and hope the programmers select it as one of their world premieres. And there’s also the more intimidating question: how exactly should one navigate the countless hurdles that they’ll face before film festivals are even a possibility?”

The winning spot, created by Evan Kelman, is titled “The Push.” The video tells the story of U.S. Army veteran Marco Reininger, a New York City resident, who runs daily to pay homage to his brothers in arms. The story of his daily run for his platoon is told throughout the video, which was named “The Push” by the platoon’s sergeant and took place on a six-mile track around the base.

“When Evan contacted me about The Push, I immediately dug the idea of telling a story that focused on perseverance and teamwork. These days, military and veteran-related stories often focus on trauma and burden. I’m glad we got to put out a more hopeful message. From the feedback we received I know the video jolts people and reminds them of the strength and team spirit they already carry inside.”

Another season, another festival. But unlike Sundance or TIFF, the Tribeca Film Festival is right in Teen Vogue HQ's backyard in Manhattan. With the festivities officially starting this week, New York City is about to gain some serious star power with the debuts of some of this year's most highly anticipated films.

“I’ll never forget that moment when I got the call inviting the film to premiere at the festival,” Kelman said. “For several months, every time I’d get a call from an unknown number, my heart would skip a beat. Several telemarketers were undoubtedly confused why their call was being answered so cheerfully. And when that phone call did arrive, I was more elated than I think I’ve ever been."